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AS Primary & Secondary Data

3.
Types of Data <ul><li>Primary Data is.. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Info collected 'first hand'; Typically done within groups or society to test a hypothesis (untested theory) for their own research purposes. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Secondary Data is.. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Info collected/created by non-sociologists for their own research, but by others people/organisations for non sociological purposes. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Sociologists use this method extensively as the info is often free or cheap, readily available and covers large numbers. </li></ul></ul>

5.
Methods for Gathering Primary Data <ul><li>Social Surveys: written questionnaire or interview. </li></ul><ul><li>Participant Observation: sociologist joins the activities of the group they are studying. </li></ul><ul><li>Experiments: Sociologists rarely use a lab for experiments. They do sometimes use field experiments & comparative method. </li></ul>

8.
Quantitative Data <ul><li>Data is in numeric (1, 2, 3, 4 etc…) form. </li></ul><ul><li>Can be in the form of official stats or %. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Examples: Official stats of girls who pass five or more GCSEs. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>% of marriages ending in divorce. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Opinion polls/market research surveys are examples of data gathering that results in numbers being generated. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: 2 out of 7 people report satisfaction with the current governments policy making. </li></ul></ul>

9.
Qualitative Data <ul><li>Gives a ' feel ' for what something is like. Tries to capture the ‘quality’ of people’s behaviours. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Examples: What is feels like to get a good A-Level result. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>What it feels like to find out that your boy/girl-friend is breaking up with you . </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Evidence is gathered through participant observation , which aims to give us a sense of what it is like to be on the inside of a group. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: Researcher posing as a thug to join a gang/mafia. </li></ul></ul>

12.
Activity: In which of the FOUR categories previously discussed does each of the following belong? <ul><li>Diaries </li></ul><ul><li>Websites </li></ul><ul><li>Opinion polls </li></ul><ul><li>Photos </li></ul><ul><li>Experiments </li></ul><ul><li>Historical documents </li></ul>